Canadian Construction Association (CCA) 2014 chair Serge Massicotte hopes that delegates at this year's CCA annual conference will take the theme, "Unlocking Canada's Potential" to heart.

“Hopefully contractors will look beyond Canada for opportunities,” he said.

“Canadian companies, especially Canadian construction companies, don’t venture too far outside their own country, if at all, with the odd exception of a few.”

He noted that contractors from other places in the world, such as Europe, venture outside their boundaries more frequently.

“Maybe this (conference) gives people an opportunity to see different construction or different opportunities. There’s an awful lot of construction going on here now and there are opportunities for them to maybe make some connections. We do have some sessions which will involve some Panamanians and hopefully there will be an opportunity for them to network.”

Masicotte is the president of Massicotte Construction in Ottawa, which he founded in 1988 as a small general contracting company. It has grown to a mid-sized company mainly operating in the National Capital Region and has done work in Quebec, Montreal and as far away as Baffin Island.

He has been actively involved in several industry associations at the national, provincial and local levels for more than 20 years. He has served as chair of the Ottawa Construction Association and the Ontario General Contractors Association.

Massicotte has been recognized by his peers with the CCA General Contractors Award of Recognition, the OGCA’s Chairman’s Award of Recognition, and the General Contractors Association of Ottawa’s Integrity and Ethics Award for his outstanding contribution and leadership in the construction industry and exemplified ethical business behaviour.

Massicotte is actively involved with the Canadian Construction Documents Committee (CCDC), where he was the longest serving member in the history of CCDC, serving as vice-chair before leaving to assume the CCA chair role.

This experience has led Massicotte to have a thorough understanding of contractor and consultant views on contracts and their risk allocation and what owners are looking for in terms of risk allocation.

“Obviously the owners are paramount in this and (I have) that relationship with the owners to make sure that contracts are balanced and CCA understands those needs as it relates to risk transfer to contractors.”

Though past CCA chairs have served on CCDC they have not had the tenure as long as Massicotte’s 16 years. His knowledge and experience with construction documents has led to his representation of CCA when dealing with government on federal procurement and contracting practices.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on contracts and having different discussions with owners, not just on CCDC, but making presentations to owners on how to structure their contracts for the construction industry, whether it be design bid build or design build, or construction management.”

Massicotte takes over the role of CCA chair from Frank Rizzardo at the CCA’s 96th annual conference in Panama this week.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Massicotte.

“I hope that I can continue to advance CCA’s position with governments and hope that I can serve CCA well.”Stay tuned to dcnonl.com and joconl.com this week for conference updates and videos. Follow the conversation on Twitter using hashtag #CCA96th. and follow the Daily Commercial News @DCN_Canada and the Journal of Commerce @JOC_Canada.